Evidence of meeting #18 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was communities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
Excuse me, are you saying you were consulted on the packaging rather than on the contents?
Senior Director, Health and Social Secretariat, Assembly of First Nations
Exactly.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
Mr. Eyahpaise, I would like to know what the permissible limit is for special food requirements. You touched on this earlier. Please explain your thought and what these would imply.
Director, Social Services and Justice, Social Policy and Programs Branch, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
I’m sorry, Madam, I did not mention any limits.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
What is the extent permitted for special dietary needs? You talked about allowing certain dietary needs to the extent permitted for diabetes, for special diseases. I want to know what the extent is.
Director, Social Services and Justice, Social Policy and Programs Branch, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
The extent permitted for people requiring special diet conditions. I just don't have those amounts with me right now, because they're variable, but I can get the details for you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
If you can get those to the committee, I think on behalf of all, that would be great.
Mr. Lunney, five minutes or less.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Great.
I've been following this discussion with a lot of interest. I think it's interesting that by the time these children hit grade one, they're already overweight. One of you mentioned that. Somebody mentioned that breastfeeding may provide protection.
Then, I see, we get into discussion here. My colleague Dave Batters brought up the question of what kind of education is taking place. We heard responses about dietitians and the lack of access to professionals to really explain and make sure that people are getting adequate nutrition.
I'm looking back at some of the information provided by our researchers here, that traditionally, with hunting and gathering, there used to be a lot of access to berries and seaweed in northern communities, and many of the wildlife that were consumed were rich in nutrients, and so on. Perhaps, of course, as traditional foods are less a part of many aboriginal diets, we're missing a lot of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, that should be important there.
With such a large group around this table, representing researchers and people with a lot of experience about this, has anybody done a simple study with basic vitamins and mineral supplements for children to find out whether this might make a big difference in their handling of blood sugars? For example, we know that chromium is essential for blood sugar metabolism. Can anybody tell me, has such a simple study been done, just with basic vitamins and minerals, for our young people?
I would just make this comment: we know that physiological efficiency has a big role in physical activity. When the body is physiologically functioning well, you simply feel like doing more.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Okay, it's a simple question. Is anyone aware?
Ms. Whitecloud.
Regional Chief, Assembly of First Nations
If we had simple answers, we wouldn't be here.
My children are all grown up. I'm a grandmother. But I know there used to be provision for vitamins for children when you went to healthy-baby clinics in the communities. I'm not sure if that's still available or not.
Many children now--those who can--go to a pediatrician instead and are provided with vitamins, and such, there. But it's not available to everybody or for every community, especially in the north. It's not available, because we have critical nursing shortages and physician shortages. They don't even have the staffing to be able to provide that unless a community health representative does.
Ms. Langlois may be able to answer that.
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Department of Health
Certainly the Canada prenatal nutrition program is very much concerned with the nutritional adequacy of mothers. So there is encouragement around breastfeeding; there is the provision of food. We had mentioned the example in Nunavik; char and caribou are provided to mothers through that program.
I'm looking to my staff in terms of the specific answer around vitamins. We are concerned about the issues of vitamins and supplementation. We work with the Canadian Paediatric Society, particularly around vitamin D supplementation.
I think the sense is that we do, through that program, provide access to supplements, but a broader intervention is required than simply that.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Yes, but you're not saying there's no specific multivitamin and mineral program to make sure we're covering all the bases that a young child might need in developing. It seems to me a good basic place to start.
Conservative
Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta
At least in James Bay communities, I know that babies are given Tri-Vi-Sol, which is a vitamin supplement, and mothers are given Materna. Not all individuals take those supplements or give them to their children. But I think it's really important to remain food-focused and not nutrient-focused, because individuals eat food, not nutrients.
In the United States, there has been the horrible thought of adding vitamins and minerals to pop because that's what children are drinking, which is a hideous notion. SunnyD markets itself that way. It's sugar water, with a few vitamins thrown in. It's mostly sugar.
I can't see that the increasing prevalence of obesity over the last few decades has to do with rampant vitamin and mineral deficiencies in children. I don't think the diet has changed enough to allow for that hypothesis. So I don't know any research specifically that has looked at whether supplementing children would reduce rates of obesity. I doubt it. And again, I think it's very important not to move away from food, because individuals eat food, not nutrients.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much.
I think that answers it. The answer is no or that it probably won't help. That's my interpretation.
Ms. Dhalla, you have three minutes.
Liberal
Ruby Dhalla Liberal Brampton—Springdale, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to echo my colleagues in saying that your presentations were extremely interesting. We thank you for taking the time and putting in the effort to provide us with information.
It was also great to see so many women come as witnesses and take a leadership role in what is now a very big issue, not only for the first nations and Inuit communities but also for all Canadian children across the country.
I was actually interested in hearing from Chief Whitecloud, along with Valerie. One of the concerns I've heard from many of the witnesses around the table is the frustration--I think Kristy put it best--with the fact that the programs being designed and developed are not actually being tailored to the needs of the community.
Looking back at last year, there was a tremendous amount of consultation done with people from the aboriginal community in regard to developing the Kelowna accord. Consultations with all levels of government and a variety of stakeholders took place over 18 months, and I think it was quite historic that everyone sat down and actually reached an agreement that was put into place.
In your presentation, Chief Whitecloud, you spoke about the holistic health strategy that had been endorsed at that particular meeting of first ministers. Unfortunately, things have taken a turn, I would say, for the worse. The Kelowna accord hasn't been endorsed by our government to date.
What type of impact has that had relative to implementing your holistic health strategy at the moment, and what types of challenges do you see, moving forward, in addressing the issue of healthy programs for our children to ensure there is promotion of obesity prevention within the population of the aboriginal, first nations, and Inuit communities?
Senior Director, Health and Social Secretariat, Assembly of First Nations
Chief Whitecloud has asked me to respond.
The impact has been that the $1.3 billion that had been announced in funding--which included funding to stabilize the envelope but also included a $445-million envelope, I believe, for transformative change in the system, which would have facilitated the changes required to allow communities the flexibility to implement that particular strategy--is gone.
We've also lost, as I mentioned, other investments around early learning and child care, which would also have contributed to improved nutrition that would have been accessible to children. So there are other resources there.
The other impact, of course, is the fact that we are facing a 3% cap as of April 1, 2007, with no alternative plan for how that will be addressed. Our communities are in an emergency situation. They are focusing strictly on how they will mange within these cutbacks instead of thinking about how they could approach things in a more innovative way and how they could address the determinants of health in their communities.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Thank you.
Our time is gone, but if the committee will allow, I have one quick question.
I've heard an awful lot about the funding and a lot about studies, and so on. Have any of you actually been approached by the federal level of government and asked for a solution that you could see coming out of your own specific communities and actually engaged in some of the solutions? There were some questions that were leading that way, but I never did hear whether you were actually engaged and asked for a first nations or Inuit approach to this problem.
Regional Chief, Assembly of First Nations
We in Manitoba are meeting with the minister, in fact, on Thursday morning to present to him a plan for how we want to take care of the health concerns of our people in Manitoba. It's specific to Manitoba.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
That's fine.
I'm speaking specifically about childhood obesity, because it is a major problem throughout all society, but in your community particularly. If you're not engaged in whatever solution we come up with here as a committee, it will not work. That's a challenge for you to think about.
Our time is gone. Thank you very much.
The meeting is adjourned.